RESEARCHER SPOTLIGHT

A Prospective Controlled Trial for the improved treatment of peri-bone loss

Dr. Alireza Moshaverinia is a Diplomate of the American Board of Prosthodontics and a tenure track assistant professor at the UCLA School of Dentistry, Division of Advanced Prosthodontics. Alireza has received his DDS degree in 2004 from Iran. He has a Master of Science degree in Dental Biomaterials (2009) from the Ohio State University, College of Dentistry. He completed advanced clinical education in Prosthodontics and earned his PhD in Craniofacial Biology from Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC (2012).

For the past several months, the Academy of Osseointegration (AO) has been making a very intentional effort to highlight original research by its international implant dentistry member community. This month, our focus is on Dr. Alireza Moshaverinia, DDS, MS, PhD – UCLA School of Dentistry, recipient of the Osseointegration Foundation’s 2016-2017 Basic Science Grant.

At AO’s 2017 Annual Meeting, Dr. Moshaverinia presented on the “Influence of Mucosa Tissue Thickness on Marginal Bone Loss of Implants with Smooth Collars: A Prospective Controlled Trial.” The long-term goal of this proposal is to introduce a promising approach for the improved treatment of peri-bone loss and to extend it to the repair of maxillofacial and skeletal defects paving the way for improved hard tissue regeneration in the clinics.

In addition, the purpose of current research project was to introduce a novel treatment modality for management of peri-implant bone loss. A visible light crosslinkable, adhesive and osteoconductive and hydrogel with tunable physical properties was developed as a delivery vehicle for stem cell therapy using mesenchymal stem cells harvested from patients own gingival tissues.
According to Dr. Moshaverinia, peri-implantitis is characterized by an inflammatory reaction in the tissues surrounding dental implants, with clinical features such as soft tissue inflammation (bleeding upon probing and suppuration) and progressive loss of supporting bone beyond biological bone remodeling. Peri-implant bone loss is one of the most common inflammatory complications in craniofacial implantology. Peri-implantitis has recently been considered as a serious complication of dental implants and has been described as the ‘time bomb,’ he asserted.

“Sharing the results of my research during AO’s meeting, where my presentation received positive feedback from the audience, gave me a great opportunity to share my group findings with colleagues and peers. Through the discussions after my presentation, I established some important and fruitful research collaborations in stem cell-mediated bone tissue engineering,” said Dr. Moshaverinia.

“I was truly honored to be the recipient of this prestigious award. It helped my research group obtain very important results to develop a novel treatment modality of peri-implant bone loss,” he concluded.